Over the last few months, members of the TeachStreet team have spent a lot of time in the field meeting with teachers and searchers. We’ve traveled to New York, to California, to Denver and we also kicked off a series of “Tea Time” feedback sessions in Seattle.  We heard a lot about where we are doing well, where we can improve and what you need. One piece of consistent feedback stood out: add payments to class listings.

Well folks, I am excited to announce that in July we will do exactly that. And, because we know that payments might not be for everyone, we wanted to give you advance notice with all the details so that you can set your account preferences before we launch.

So, first up, here’s how it will work: Student enrolls,  teacher accepts, teacher gets paid.
Ok, so there are a few more details – but we promise that it’s basically that simple.

• TeachStreet users will be able to “enroll” in available sessions from Teachers who have enabled payments. Users will click a “Sign-up” button and then be given the option to confirm their enrollment request and submit payment. If a Teacher doesn’t have payments enabled then students will still be able to contact them via the “Contact Me” button.
• By default, all Teachers are opted-in to payments.
• Payments will be powered securely by PayPal.
• Teachers will have the option to accept or reject a student enrollment (within 3 business days).
• If a Teacher rejects an enrollment, the payment will be refunded in full.
• Teachers will have a management interface where they accept or decline enrollments and can review previous payments.

We’re starting with basic features to make it easy to sign-up for classes. We’ll continue to add features and management tools based upon your feedback.

So, now to fees.
We want to be upfront about our cost structure. We have tried to build out a pricing model that is fair, competitive with other alternatives in the market, and that will help both your business and our business grow.

• All transactions (payments to Teachers) will have a 4.9% Processing Fee.
• New customers (1st time payment to that teacher) carry an additional 2.5% New Customer Fee.
• At launch, all disbursements (transfer of funds to a teacher) will happen immediately when a Teacher accepts an enrollment and will have a $0.99 Disbursement Fee. We plan to move to a monthly or on-demand disbursement process at a later date. There are no fees to Disburse Payment!
• The Minimum Listing Price (cost of a class)  will be $5.00 (or free).
• All listings that are free carry no transaction costs. We believe that free, should be well, free!

For example, if your class is $65.00 you would pay $3.19 in Processing Fees, plus the $0.99 Disbursement Fee. Your net payment would be $61.83.  If the enrollment was for a new student (a new lead from TeachStreet), Teachers would pay an additional  $1.63 for a net payment of 60.20.

In addition to the above, students will be assessed a convenience fee at the time of purchase. This fee is 5% of the listing cost with a $0.99 minimum and covers all student-related transactions costs and customer support.

Not yet ready to enable enrollments for your listings?
In July we will activate payments for all Teachers on the site (we will send a reminder when the date has been set). When payments are activated Teachers will still have the option to accept or decline an enrollment. However, we realize that some Teachers or Schools may want to turn off payments at launch. We understand that, so we have set up an opt-out process. Just complete the form below, by  9:00 AM PST on July 8th PST, and we’ll turn off the payments option at launch. If you later decide that you want to accept enrollments through TeachStreet, you can turn on payments in your account once the feature is available.

Have Questions?
Contact us – we’re here to help and would like to hear your thoughts.

UPDATE: 7.12.09 The form is now closed. If you have questions about TeachStreet Payments, please contact us.
UPDATE: 7.12.09 We have changed our fee structure to remove Disbursement Fees. This blog post has been updated to reflect that change. NJM

It’s a popular practice on both TeachStreet and the mean streets of Seattle. Yoga, in all of its forms, is applicable to everyday life and is even more applicable now than ever before. Center your lifestyle and hey, the economy’s bound to turn around  at some point!

Learning more from our teachers
This past week, our group of teachers and yoga enthusiasts spoke up about how to rejuvinate home practice of yoga, particularly if you haven’t fit in time for your downward dog lately. Teacher Susan Snyder also weighed in about qigong, yoga’s cousin. Check out Susan’s article that outlines the basics of qugong, it’s an interesting read.

Personal experiences from our staff
Teachstreeter and experienced excerciser Jenn has been wondering if her older yoga routine can be worked in with pilates workouts. Can these two workouts have the same (or better) effect as a hybrid routine? Check out Jenn’s Yoga vs. Pilates discussion and weigh in with your thoughts.
I, on the other hand, just started taking Hot Yoga classes. I really knew nothing going into the experience, even the very basic question of what to bring! Well, my dumb questions were answered and I posted an article on it. You can read all about how I learned to love hot yoga, and hopefully, you’ll be a step ahead.

Take a class
There are tons of classes in nearly every type of yoga practice at TeachStreet. Check out a yoga class in your city, contact a teacher with any questions you may have, or post that question to our forums! It’s a great way to learn and be ready for that first, eighth, or twentieth class.

Reading more into yoga
The great thing about yoga’s popularity is that there are so many great resources out there to consult before diving in head-first! In this case, our TeachStreet experts have found 16 great yoga blogs that you can check out for more information.

Education doesn’t stop when you leave the classroom. Learn something new!

We wanted to take a few minutes to welcome some of the wonderful new teachers to TeachStreet.  Last week, we announced our addition of thousands of Philadelphia teachers, schools and classes, as well as thousands more across the entire state of Pennsylvania. This was extra special for me, as I grew up in a small town called Leesport, PA (near Reading, PA from Monopoly’s Reading Railroad fame), went to school at Penn State and later at the University of Pennsylvania, and lived for many years in and around Philadelphia (and, of course, have friends from all over the state, given my 4 crazy years in State College!).

It’s been a blast seeing teachers claim their profiles, and also just discover TeachStreet, and set up their classes — some of my favorites:

Sara’s awesome — she’s an avid lover of All Things Handmade!  Here she teaches a basic screenprinting class — and, you can also check her out on her craft blog.

The above is an incredibly fun-looking belly dancing instructor called ‘A Touch of Class‘, based in Reading, PA teaching a class in Mohnton, PA (very near to Reading) — check out their awesome photos!

I love the above Piano class, because it gives a great example of a class managed by a school (Art Piano, in this case) and taught by an incredibly friendly-looking teacher (Laura Childress) — both are registered TeachStreet members, and both look ready to grow their businesses, if I do say so myself!

Is the summer weather finding you looking at your camera and finally readying you to take a photography class?  This Philadelphia Arts school (Portside Arts Center) has just what you’re looking for with this ‘Introduction to Photography’ session.  Get out there, and get shooting!

A trip to Pennsylvania wouldn’t be complete without some banjo lessons, would it?  I was ready to dance a jig (yes, I know… I doubt that the jig goes with the Banjo!) when I saw this listing — the instructor, Joan Dickerson, is an incredibly accomplished banjo-ist — thrilled to see her as part of TeachStreet already

Finally, check out the Painting Lesson and Drawing Classes from this teacher, Veronica, in State College, PA — a native of Russia, she completed her Master’s of Fine Arts at Penn State, and she now teaches one-on-one Art Lessons — what a rich diversity of instructors already!

We look forward to seeing what surprises us on TeachStreet this week!

We really have a community of arts and crafts teachers here on TeachStreet ranging from knitting and sewing, to jewelry making and painting. All of these folks love to teach, but there’s definitely a  good amount of crossover of folks who also love selling products they love to make.

Here’s an example of the mini on Marlo M’s Profile

With that, we’re working with one of the largest handmade goods marketplace online, Etsy.com. If you’re currently a teacher/instructor on our site and you either currently sell your products there or wish to do so, you can link the two sites together by adding an Etsy Mini to your TeachStreet Profile. Here are the instructions to do so:

Install your Etsy Mini:

1. Login to TeachStreet.com
2. Click the “My Account” link on the top right-hand corner
3. Scroll down to “Are you an Etsy member?”
4. Click “link an Etsy member account”
5. Enter in your “Etsy Member ID / Username” (or, the Etsy Member ID / Username for a friend of yours!)
6. Click the green “Save” button and you’re done!

This will create an Etsy Mini on TeachStreet, which will be located on below your left-hand navigation on your profile page, class pages, and article pages.

Here at TeachStreet, we try to enable our teachers to do what they love, and if it’s teaching — great! But if you can make things you love and earn some money while you’re at it, even better.

Note: You need to be a member of Etsy to display your personal Etsy Mini widget, which can display either your shop items.

As you already know, we’re on a mission to provide you with the tools you need to accelerate your teaching practice.  Well, we’ve been stepping on the gas ourselves, and are pretty excited to share our latest improvement to the site….

Announcing…..the teacher….Dashboard!

The Dashboard is designed to answer the question, “what should I be doing on Teachstreet today,” and from this daily starting point you’ll be able to easily monitor your online marketing efforts and stay on top of what’s going on in your subject and city.

Check out this guide to help you understand all of the features of your new Dashboard and how you can use them to achieve your teaching goals.

We created the Dashboard based on your feedback, but we’re not stopping there.  Don’t be shy!  Tell us what you think of this first version or what else we can do to help you get the most out of Teachstreet and build your business in our forums.

Also, every new feature has awesome people behind it that make it happen. So there are two major shout-outs needed:

Phil “the dashboard” Nash.
Phil is the rockstar developer / engineer / coding master that built the dashboard that you see today. He built incredible systems to collect the data, analyze it and make it useful for you. He also made it all pretty — aren’t those graphs awesome? On top of all this — Phil put in the loooong hours to make it all work. Thank you Phil!!

Dave “the dash” Sanford
Dave is the product manager that defined and designed the dashboard. The initial whiteboard scratchings were magically turned into the cool product you see today thanks to his product specs & guidance. Thanks Dave!

I’ve always loved summer, since I’m able to bust out my grilling skills for the weekend BBQs. Along with the summer grilling I usually enjoy, I love cooking year round and it’s always good to refresh your skills by taking classes, and also reading some great articles out there about cooking. On TeachStreet, we definitely have a great community of cooking teachers/schools who share their expertise about what they know best, cooking!

Along with our great articles on our site, there are some fun blogs out there dedicated to all things cooking and I’d love to share them with you. They’re a great resource for you to learn more about cooking, and they’re also great places to broaden your idea of cooking. Here’s a great list of the Top 16 Cooking Blogs, and of course, in no particular order.

Top 16 Cooking Blogs

1. Baking Bites – Baking Boot Camp
2. Smitten Kitchen – Hot Fudge Sauce
3. Chocolate & Zucchini – Simple Rice Pudding
4. Orangette – Ring Bells – Ring the Bells
5. 101 Cookbooks – Adzuki Butternut Squash Soup
6. Serious Eats – The Mcnuggetini
7. The Amateur Gourmet – What Makes a Great Steakhouse
8. Cooking for Engineers – Fancy Food Show Winter 2009
9. Start Cooking – How to Mince, Dice, and Chop Onions
10. Simply Recipes – Carrot Cake
11. Thyme for Cooking – Béchamel Sauce; Do unto others? Please… Don’t
12. Brown Eyed Baker – For the Love of Peanut Butter and Cinnamon
13. VegCooking – Tofu Scramble
14. Cooking with Amy – Chicken Roasted in Pot Recipe
15. Pinoy Cook – Brownies Mat Loaves and a Pinoy Cook Inspired Christmas Menu
16. Whats Cooking Blog – Healthy Valentine’s Day Treats to Share at School

We are pleased to announce the first Summer of Learning Contest winner! Drum roll, please…

For his post to the article, Ever wonder where to take an art class in chicago?, art teacher Darrell Roberts has won a $25 gift certificate to Amazon. Congratulations, Darrell!

All you other TeachStreeters, never fear, we have a long summer ahead of us full of prizes galore! Our next winner will be selected next Tuesday, June, 23. What’s up for grabs next, you ask? An excellent TeachStreet Gift-Pak ($35 value). For rules and information view our Contest page: http://www.teachstreet.com/contest

The Everything Yoga Blog
http://www.itsallaboutyoga.com/
http://www.itsallaboutyoga.com/2009/02/the-yoga-of-kirtan.html

About.com Yoga
http://yoga.about.com/
http://yoga.about.com/b/2009/02/15/standing-big-toe-pose-utthita-hasta-padangusthasana-is-the-yoga-pose-of-the-week.htm#comments

Yoga Buzz
http://blogs.yogajournal.com/yogabuzz/
http://blogs.yogajournal.com/yogabuzz/2009/02/the_biggest_yogi_1.html

Just Breathe
http://yogamad.blogspot.com/
http://nadinefawell.wordpress.com/blog-posts/
http://nadinefawell.wordpress.com/2009/02/14/heartfelt-connection/

yoga gumbo
http://yogamum.wordpress.com/
http://yogamum.wordpress.com/2009/02/14/no-crisis-here/

Daily Cup of Yoga
http://dailycupofyoga.wordpress.com/
http://dailycupofyoga.wordpress.com/2009/01/31/video-review-yoga-foundations-with-hillary-rubin/

Yoga Chickie
http://laurencahn.blogspot.com/
http://laurencahn.blogspot.com/2009/02/consider-this-drive-by-posting.html

Master of Meditation, Kundalini Yoga and Zen
http://www.anmolmehta.com/blog/
http://anmolmehta.com/blog/2009/02/13/yoga-for-kids-children-yoga-poses/

YogaToday
http://www.yogatoday.com/blog/
http://www.yogatoday.com/blog/2009/02/13/yoga-surf-vacation-in-sayulita-mexico/

True Yoga Inc
http://www.trueyogainc.com/blog.html
http://www.trueyogainc.com/2009/02/stars-are-aligned.html

My Yoga Online
http://www.myyogaonline.com/blog/
http://www.myyogaonline.com/blog/2009/02/12/safe-wrists-in-yoga-chest-opening-poses/

My Yoga Blog
http://my-yoga-blog.blogspot.com/
http://my-yoga-blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/from-winter-to-spring-and-back.html

Yoga is for Lovers
http://yogaisforlovers.wordpress.com/
http://yogaisforlovers.wordpress.com/2009/02/01/yoga-product-review-wags-wrist-assured-gloves/

Kundalini Yoga Blog
http://www.kundaliniyogablog.com/
http://www.kundaliniyogablog.com/-2009-02-14-1000-day-meditation-day-1/

The Yoga Instructor Diaries
http://theyogainstructordiaries.blogspot.com/
http://theyogainstructordiaries.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-maybe-later-but-not-here-not-today.html

Yoga Fitness Blog
http://yogafitnessblog.com/
http://yogafitnessblog.com/a-quick-guide-to-yoga-retreats-and-yoga-vacations/